The X-24 was one of several aircraft designed to test advantages of the lifting-body configuration (wedge-shaped, wingless aircraft that get their lift from body contours alone) for low supersonic, transonic, and landing-approach-speed flight. This work eventually paved the way for the space shuttle. The X-24 was also the last of the rocket- powered experimental aircraft. The program began slowly, as the X-24A was rolled out in July 1967 and, after full-scale wind tunnel tests at NASA's Ames Flight Research Center, did not fly until spring 1969. Three Air Force and NASA pilots made a total of 28 flights in the X-24A, totaling two hours, 54 minutes of flight time. It did not reach supersonic speeds until its eighteenth flight. The last flight came on June 4, 1971. In early 1972, the aircraft was sent to Martin Marietta's facility in Denver, Colo., where it was modified into the X-24B, with a delta-shaped body and nearly twice the lifting surface area. The modifications took 10 months and cost only $550,000. NASA pilot John Manke made the first glide flight of the X-24B on August 1, 1973, and the first powered flight on November 15, 1973. Four NASA pilots and two Air Force pilots (including Capt. Dick Scobee, who would be killed in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger accident) made a total of 36 flights totaling three hours, 46 minutes in the revised X-24B. On August 5, 1975, pilot Manke made the first landing of a lifting-body aircraft on a conventional concrete runway, and the feat was repeated by Air Force Lt. Col. Mike Love on August 20. The last flight of the program came on November 26, 1975. A proposed X-24C, which would have picked up the very-high-speed test role from the X-15 (planned speeds of Mach 8) was canceled. The X-24B is now on display at the US Air Force Museum at Wright- Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Contractors:	Martin Marietta Corp.
Locations Built:	Middle River, Md.
Number Built: (USAF)	One (one)
First Flight:	April 17, 1969 (first glide flight). March 19, 1970 (first powered flight)
First Flight Model:	X- 24A
First Flight Location:	Edwards AFB, Calif.
First Flight Pilot:	Jerauld Gentry
Models/Variants:	X-24A, B
Powerplant:	One Thoikol XLR11-RM-13 liquid fuel, four-chamber rocket of 9,800 lb of thrust and two Bell hydrogen peroxide landing rockets of 400 lb thrust each that could be used at pilot's discretion on landing
Wingspan:	19 ft 2 in.
Length:	37 ft 6 in.
Height:	10 ft 4 in.
Weight:	13,800 lb gross
Armament:	None
Accommodation:	Pilot only
Cost:	Unconfirmed
Max. Speed:	Approx three min of powered flight followed by a five-min glide flight
Range:	6,000 mi.
Ceiling:	74,130 ft.